[bksvol-discuss] OT: RE: iPods and Apple Accessibility News
- From: "Chris Hofstader" <cdh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:47:06 -0400
Hi,
There wasn't exactly a lawsuit but the Massachusetts Attorney General had
questioned the lack of accessibility in older revisions of the iTunes client
and NFB had started putting pressure on Apple to improve its overall
accessibility.
GW Micro, publishers of Window-Eyes, worked closely with Apple to get iTunes
working with Windows screen readers and consulted with Apple as to how a
synthesized speech interface exposed by an iPod should act. The results
seem very good (I played with the iPod at an Apple salon store but didn't
buy one) for Windows users and anyone who wants to use an off-the-shelf
digital music player.
Blind Macintosh users have had access to iTunes via VoiceOver for about a
year and a half but no one has had an accessible iPod (without replacing the
interface with something like RockBox) until these past few weeks.
While Window-Eyes was first to support iTunes on Windows, JAWS now supports
it in their latest beta and System Access (including the no cost "To Go"
version) will be released with iTunes support in the very near future.
I have been very favorably impressed with the Apple VoiceOver screen reader
in the latest edition of the Leopard OSX operating environment. In some
ways, it outpaces the more established Windows products and, when it comes
to stability, I was able to keep a Macintosh with VoiceOver running for four
weeks without a crash or need to restart - the reason I finally did do a
restart was to install updates, including the latest iTunes.
The Apple accessibility people are dedicated, talented and very creative and
I expect to see some really amazing stuff from them in the recent future.
Enjoy,
cdh
Chris Hofstader
CUNY, BSO, ATG, Odds and Ends
email: cdh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Blog: http://www.blindconfidential.blogspot.com
<http://www.blindconfidential.blogspot.com/>
Skype: BlindChristian
phone: 727-896-6393
_____
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Monica Cortada
Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2008 1:43 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] iPods and Apple Accessibility News
I don't know if this was in response to a lawsuit or what, but this is good
news item from the Apple Insider website:
Saturday, September 27, 2008 @ 3:00am
Apple makes iTunes 8, iTunes U content accessible to the blind
http://remnant.fmpub.net/view.php?t=b&n=66022&fleur_de_sel=6424711167
Apple has volunteered to work with the state of Massachusetts to make iTunes
8 and the new iPod nano fully accessible, unlocking music, movies, and the
free lectures and other educational material in iTunes U to blind users.
According to a
<http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jhzzLZikgpOiFB9rhpMQ_cwu4HiAD93ENBMO0>
report by the Associated Press, John Olivera of the Massachusetts Commission
for the Blind said the state approached Apple for help in making the wealth
of educational material in iTunes U available to blind students.
Apple worked out an agreement with Massachusetts Attorney General Martha
Coakley to make iTunes fully accessible, using VoiceOver technology
developed for Mac OS X Leopard to enable blind users to set up an iTunes
account, access iTunes U content, purchase albums, and rent movies.
There are currently "major gaps in the online world for blind consumers" the
AP story noted, but cited Coakley as saying, "Apple is the leader, they've
become the industry standard. Other companies that compete will have to or
want to do this."
The agreement will build upon the existing accessibility features introduced
in iTunes 8 to make iTunes U fully accessible by the end of the year and
complete full access to remaining portions of iTunes by the end of June
2009, according
<http://www.lioncourt.com/2008/09/26/apple-and-nfb-reach-agreement-on-itunes
-accessibility/> to a report by Mac accessibility site Lioncourt.
The agreement includes a three year commitment to maintaining accessibility
in iTunes, and Apple also donated $250,000 to the Massachusetts Commission
for the Blind.
Prior to the agreement, Apple had made much of iTunes accessible with the
release of initial VoiceOver support early last year. Apple enhanced
VoiceOver and added Braille support in Mac OS X Leopard last fall. The
company has also added Closed Captioning playback support in recent iPods
and Apple TV and has provided support allowing iTunes content producers to
add subtitles to their material.
iTunes accessible cross platform
For Windows users, Apple worked with GW Micro to develop full support for
Microsoft Active Accessibility, an API that allows Windows applications to
work with third party screen readers including Window Eyes 7.0 beta 3.
Freedom Scientific also just recently announced iTunes support for its Jaws
for Windows screen reader software.
While Leopard bundles in VoiceOver screen reading technology for Mac users
at no extra cost, Windows users have to buy a screen reader application,
which costs around $1000.
At a press conference held at the Perkins School for the Blind, AP
interviewed 17 year old Cory Cadlik, who had given up using his iPod in
frustration over not being able to use iTunes himself to download music.
"You had no access before," Cadlik said. "When then this came out ... I
said, 'Wow, this is great, this is awesome.'"
iPod nano accessibility
Apple also enhanced the 4G
<http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/09/15/review_apples_fourth_generati
on_ipod_nano/> iPod nano, providing an alternative large font option as well
as a spoken interface feature that enables iTunes to upload a prerecorded
speech interface for audio navigation.
Using iTunes 8 to generate audio navigation for the iPod nano, rather than
building an entire text-to-speech system on the iPod, results in better
sounding audio and allows for greater customization, as users can select
their desired playback rate and the voice used, either Leopard's standard
Alex or any third party voice that has been installed on the machine.
The new mic-integrated
<http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/09/09/new_headphone_mic_options_for
_late_2008_ipods.html> headphones due next month will also help by providing
volume and playback controls on the wire, as will the new
accelerometer-based 'shake to shuffle' feature.
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